ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled state Senate approved a bill Monday night that would bar certain gender-affirming treatments for youths under age 18.
Sponsored by Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, Senate Bill 140, which passed 33-22 along party lines, would prohibit hospitals and doctors from providing either hormone-replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgeries to minors.
“This is simply saying … we’re asking for the children to be 18 years or older before they make a decision that will alter their lives forever,” Summers said.
The bill would allow the revocation of a hospital’s or physician’s license if the rules are violated, Summers said. It does allow for some exceptions, including for treatment of certain medical conditions and for those who are already on hormone-replacement therapy as of July 1, 2023.
“What we’ve tried to do is strike a really good balance,” said Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, noting that the bill would allow transgender youth to continue with gender-affirming mental health and puberty blocker treatments but not irreversible hormone-replacement therapies or gender-affirming surgeries.
Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, urged her colleagues to vote against the bill after describing the evolution of her thinking on care for transgender youth after learning that her then-daughter identifies as a male.
Harrell said the medical standards of care for transgender youth have been recently rewritten with a heavy emphasis on providing young people with individualized care and necessary counseling before starting hormone-replacement therapy or undergoing gender-affirming surgery.
Read the full article here
